The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-20

Science i'm Which There Has Eeen No Inn
provenlent for q Hundred Years.

A Science i'm Which There Has Been No Inn
provenlent for q Hundred Years.
New York Evening Post.
One only las to go few miles out of any OF
our large cities to find the reads in every drec
ton being repaired in the exact manner in
which they repaired by the struggling col
onists between 1880 and 1700-that is, nothing is
attempted beyond filling ID the holes with any
material that is at hand, and affordng facilities
for the water to run off. The material that is at
hand is of course, the mud compost out of
the adjacent ditch. This is shoveed up with
the utmost gravity and deposited all along the
center, filling up the cavities and hiding from
view the projecting rocks. In districts in which
gravel or strong clay is obtained in this way, the
result ia often satisfactory enough But
as general rule the contents of the ditch
are simply mud or decayed vegetable matter,
plaster. it rapidly become DUST and is swept
away by the wind, else becomes mud and is
washed back again into the ditch or down into
the hollows in which in wet weather 1t forms
kind of ouagsnire through which horses toll
YEARLY. The enc advance we have made In
this curious process over the early colonists is
the invention of the large iron scoop or shovel,
worked by oxen or horses. as substitute for the
manual labor of the olden days. A foreigner,
seeing it at work for the first time. is always
disposed to believe that the road is being pre-
pared for a crop OF some kind. and a matter
of fact we have ourselves seen many mile of
country road in which, after the spring repairs,
ianty
OF course there signs of progress out Of
this primitive condition i'll the more denseiy
settled districts on the eastern coast and in the
neighborhood of the large cities. The Park
roads, with which people have been made fami-
liar during the past thirty years, have shown
those who have never been abroad what a good
road is, and have thus raised the standard of
road making. the Vienna bakery raised the
standard of bread making all over the country
after the Philadelphia exposition in 1876 But
most rural districts suffer greatly from not hav
ing standard at all. Some of those who tax
themselves most freely suffer most, because the
If1,1
prove the roads, but breeds political ring, who
treat it as doodle" The reason they suffer is
that, they have no standard of goodness in
roads. and do not make specific requirements as
to what shall be done to keep the roads in order.
it is never possible to bring trustees, select
men, or ,r roadmasasrs to proper ,h &C.
can show they have put on the annual
spring plaster; and when it is washed away as it
Is sure to be a little later they throw the blame
on the freshets. and the simple citizen. not know
ing what to say in answer to them says nothing.
We have the plaster applied to projecting
rocks in steep declivity in the middle of great
highway within twenty miles of New York. year
after year, without a word of remonstrance from
body, and without any demand for the use of
the sledge hammer for the safety OF horses and
carriages The waste of all this through the wear
and tear of animals, vehicles and harness is, of
course, immense. AS it is not easy to calculate
it. it makes but little i'm preston on the popular
mind. but 1t probably far surpasses the cost of
thorough repair macadamization Until a
standard has beer set mp. increased votes of
money for road making Will, In populous DIS
tricts, simply result in the multiplication of the
people who live by politics"
There is little doubt, too, that not only was
the light wagon. for which America Is now IA
nous, produced by the badness of our roads.
but it now helps keep the roads bad by di-
minishing in the public eye the Inconvenience of
them. The wagon in which Americans delight,
and which other nation has yet been able to
initiate. really gets bad roads almost
easily a saddle or pack horse. We have seen
it Jump fence behind a runaway with a certain
grace and dexterity, but bad roads tell on it
rapidly, also, though not, perhaps, rapidly
on heavier vehicles 1t is hardly an exaggera-
ton to say that light wagon would last
one third longer an Erglish Swiss
road than ours, and would be far greater
luxury. Nobody shows more appreciation of the
smooth, hard park road than the trotting men,
although they prefer the dirt road to speed" on;
and they may be said to be the only class of the
community to whose needs wishes attention
in the matter of road making has been paid. The
owners of heavy vehicles have been left to get
along as best they can, although they use roads
for business and not for pleasure. In no depart
ment of our material progress, in fact is there
much need of reform in road making.
and above all in our road-repairing. whether we
look at the matter from the health or the pleas
ure point of view. The dirt road" can hardly
be reformed 1t ought to go altogether.